Thursday, April 29, 1999

WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP)--The massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School is the latest fallout in a whirlwind of juvenile violence stemming from a popular social theory that has served only “to prolong the irresponsible years of childhood,” according to a Southern Baptist seminary professor and author.

“We have created a monster in our culture that we do not know how to control,” said David Alan Black, professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist ... Read More

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--Some may say it's just a movie, just entertainment. For Daniel Block, professor of Old Testament interpretation at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., it's a twisting of the biblical account of Noah and a "shameless perversion" of the character of God. Block also was disturbed by the graphic violence in the film, especially in light of the school shooting in Littleton, Colo.

Block and some of his students previewed the upcoming NBC miniseries "Noah'... Read More

LEBANON, Tenn. (BP)--The April 20 tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., drives people to search for answers, sometimes in all the wrong places, Gene Mims told worshipers in April 25 services at First Baptist Church, Lebanon, Tenn.

Twelve students and one teacher were killed when two students rampaged through the building with guns and bombs, before turning their weapons on themselves. The diary of one of the killers showed they had been planning their actions for a year.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--Southern Baptists will fast and pray for 22 million people of North Korea during the 1999 Day of Prayer and Fasting, scheduled from 6 p.m. Friday, May 21, to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 22.

By asking God to bring his peace to this former enemy, Southern Baptists will commit "an act of love" that testifies to God's power to change lives, says a veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Ken Dupuy, a businessman from Longview, Texas, has learned firsthand the power of God's amazing love... Read More

Southern Baptist missionary Jack Martin and his Thailand prison evangelism team discovered that anew when they tried to locate a prison they had received government permission to enter.

Confused, they arrived at a different prison. Thinking it was the facility they sought, they presented a gift to the bewildered warden. Martin realized the mix-up as they talked, but also discovered the... Read More

WASHINGTON (BP)--A federal commission nearing the end of its two-year study of gambling in America approved April 28 in a divisive vote a recommendation suggesting government at various levels may want to adopt a moratorium on expansion of the practice.

The 5-4 vote on the final day of the two-day meeting demonstrated the division that has existed below the surface on some other issues considered by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. When consensus on language on a possible morato... Read More

WASHINGTON (BP)--The federal ban on broadcast advertising of gambling at private casinos may not exist much longer.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments in a challenge by the Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association to the congressional ban on nonmisleading advertising of casino gambling via radio and television.

The high court appears poised to strike down the prohibition. The New Orleans organization appealed a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion upholding the ban. The ... Read More

NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. (BP)--In the decades immediately following World War II, Southern Baptists expanded the reach of their missions commitment well beyond the South. Beachheads were established when they planted Manhattan Baptist Church in 1954 in New York City and Screven Memorial Baptist Church four years later in southern New Hampshire.

“The Northeast became a ‘laboratory’ for Southern Baptists’ redefining the laity, engaging in innovative evangelism, legitimizing s... Read More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Four books published by Broadman & Holman Publishers of LifeWay Christian Resources have been selected as finalists in the 1999 Gold Medallion Awards Competition sponsored by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

Categories range from Bibles to reference works to fiction and Christian living. Five titles are nominated within each category. B&H books comprise three of the five nominees in the devotional category.

Formed in 1946 by the Southern Baptist Convention, and supported with Cooperative Program funds, Baptist Press (BP) is a daily (Monday-Friday) international news service. Operating from a central bureau in Nashville, Tenn., BP works with a large network of contributing writers, photographers and editorial providers to produce BP News.